Old faces in new cabinet give business leaders a reason to smile

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new cabinet has some big challenges to deal with in coming months but the mix of veterans and newcomers has business leaders confident they won’t have to worry about any surprises or changes of direction.

They are particularly pleased that Harper decided to keep Jim Flaherty in finance.

“He’s very well respected and well thought of,” said John Manley, president and CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.

“There’s comfort in the sense that as the major player in terms of the macro economy, this looks like steady as she goes. We know what to expect, we know what the promises are and we’ll assume that they will follow through on those.”

Dan Kelly, senior vice-president legislative affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, was also glad Flaherty remained in finance.

“He has been a very small-business sensitive finance minister,” Kelly explained. “He launched a Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card Industry and helped reduce the pressure on EI rates last year. His 2011 budget with the EI Hiring Credit for small business and work on Canada Revenue Agency’s red tape is very important and is CFIB’s highest priority right now.”

For some ministers, however, like new Industry Minister Christian Paradis, there will be a lot to learn and some big decisions to make in coming months.

“The industry portfolio (is) where there are a lot of big issues, everything from the Investment Canada guidelines, telecom regulations, reintroduction of copyright law and on it goes,” said Manley who served as industry minister in a Liberal government.

“Minister Paradis is not new to cabinet so that’s good but he’s going to find, as I did, that portfolio has a lot of complexity — a lot of discreet issues, and the learning curve can be pretty steep in it,” Manley added. “We’ll have to see how quickly he can adapt to some of that.”

One question mark for Manley is International Trade Minister Ed Fast from B.C who was named to cabinet for the first time this week. Manley said Fast is not well known to his members and the trade portfolio is “crucially important.”

“In trade, you have the negotiations with Europe and you have the potential negotiations with India. You’ve got ongoing issues with Asia in terms of what our overall strategy is, so for a new minister that’s a pretty big agenda.”

However, Manley said the Conservative government’s most successful trade ministers to date have both been from B.C. — David Emerson and Stockwell Day.

“Certainly our organization has been pushing to have a more strategic approach to Asia. Clearly, that is where the growth is occurring in terms of the global economy and political importance is also increasing. So having an orientation that is more focused on Asia would be a good thing.”

Manley and Kelly both welcomed the news that Maxime Bernier is back in cabinet – this time as minister of state for small business and tourism. However, Manley warned Bernier will have to think strategically if he wants to make progress in the government’s goal of reducing regulation and red tape.

“His challenge is going to be that a lot of the issues that he will find raised about regulatory complexity and red tape are the purview of other departments. And while he has a role where he can identify things, he can’t actually make ministers do something.”

The key, said Manley is to be collaborative and get his cabinet colleagues on side rather than have them stonewall.

“A lot of the red tape you’re going to find in other departments — whether it is in the environment department, the health department, natural resources, agriculture, (the Canada Revenue Agency) — those are the departments where a lot of these things will be found.”

Kelly said the CFIB worked well with Bernier when he was industry minister and is looking forward to working with him again.

“Minister Bernier in particular thinks similarly to our members as we prefer tax and regulatory lightening over big government economic development programs.”

Kelly said his group is optimistic about the new cabinet.

“All in all, there is a nice blend of stability in some key ministries with new players to work with in others… Regulations, taxation or skilled labor shortages are hitting all provinces and we trust these ministers will work hard on our issues.”